Your Voice: California Energy Crisis

January 23, 2001

Fierce capitalism

I feel sorry for those poor Californians who, suffering with storm-swollen oceanfronts, must also live with the continuing threat of systematic power grid shutdowns due to the deregulation of public utilities.

For true justice to prevail in this land, the people must have a caring, empathizing governmental party that protects its citizens from the terror that looms when capitalism is unleashed in its fiercest form.

Before federal regulations were established and levied on tow truck companies, a simple tow could cost as much as $300.

Governmental regulations eased the burden on the American public from tyranny.

Now with deregulation of public utilities, especially the nuclear power plants and heating oils, rates are increasing at alarming rates.

Why pity the Californian environmentalists who, for many decades, have refused to allow the electric power industry to build new power plants in their state and the stockholders of the utility stock to get a fair return on their investments?

They have always been glad to have the surrounding states supply their electricity. The Palo Verde nuclear plant outside of Phoenix, the Navaho Station coal-fired plant on the Arizona- Utah border and many others in Nevada and Oregon were built to supply the majority of its power to California.

Now Californians have to pay the price for their lack of home-grown power plants.

Having other states supply power is OK as long as there is a surplus of generation, but in tight times, the states with the generation supply their own states first.

The same problem exists in California's refusal to allow refineries to be built.

I hope they enjoy $2 per gallon gas prices. I have no sympathy.

The bottom line is that a good economy requires an adequate energy supply. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure the production is adequate to cover consumption.

The government should be working with the power industry and the petrochemical industry. They should ensure the supply is adequate to supply peak needs now and has margin for growth.

The deregulation of the electric industry is not going to be good for the consumer. The utilities are being required to divest themselves of production facilities. These facilities are being bought by very large consortiums with the big bucks to pay for the plants.

This will result in less competition among the power producers. Less competition is bad for consumers.

The California electricity crisis was not caused by deregulation. It was made worse by partial deregulation that did not properly allow market forces to work.

Since 1996, demand for electricity has grown by 50 percent in California, yet supply has risen 6 percent.

Californians want more electricity but have not allowed generation plants to be built.

The generation plants that have been built in nearby states are mostly powered by natural gas because it burns cleaner than coal. However, the environmentalists will not allow drilling for natural gas (and oil).

Supplies are decreasing, and the price has gone way up. Meanwhile, electric rates in California have been regulated lower than the actual cost of the electricity and the electrical utilities are running out of money and credit.

It is easy to hate and, in your case, smear the electrical utility. Just about everyone does, until the lights go out.

But it takes real fuel and equipment to generate electricity. It takes wires to bring the power to our homes and businesses.

It takes real people to make all this work. It takes real money to pay for it.

California is getting exactly what it deserves. They want to live in a "La La land" where more people demand more electricity without paying for it.

It is time they woke up. This can be a wake-up call for the rest of us, too.

Dale Fowler

Smithfield

Power shortage is a puzzle

I do not understand this power shortage thing. Our peerless leaders have worked diligently to establish competition in the field.

Seems to me that all California has to do is to write a purchase requisition and put its requirements out for bid.

Or putting it another way, if the law says that the public utilities must not make a profit, there will be no profit for the utilities that abide by the law.